looking into reloading equipment

I don't know if reloading is for me because my cousin does it one at a time and there is a reloading/ gun store not too far from me that does it also cheep enough to not make it worth the investment, the reloading shop also does it one station at a time (no progressive presses).

But I'm still interested in learning. I have looked into something that I thought the anal retentive reloader might have knowledge of and if it is worth looking into and doing. After watching Greg's latest reloading video for getting it to the lands, I was wondering what else could be done and came across this.

Well I called the one gun store that also did reloading and they closed, the owner retired after 40yrs, kind of a bummer cause of their price of reloading was cheep enough to not want me to get into reloading.

So now I'm probably gonna do something for the 5.56. I have around 1200 empties and would like to get them reloaded and having my cousin do them would take forever (he said so too) single press and kinda anal reloader with the way he dose it.

So I'm thinking a progressive reloader for busting rounds thru the AR it not a super precision shooter like my bolt 308 and Rem17. They really are not meant to be while it s a Colt H-Bar Comp II it isn't my go to bug hole gun, I shoot it for fun.

Is Dillon still the go to progressive press? or is there another? like the Lee turret press or something else I can look into for the amount of reloading a Gas gun can produce after a day of busting rounds.

I was looking at the Dillon 650. Used wouldn't be out of the question either unless advised otherwise.

@datec
The only progressive I have any experience with is the Dillon 550 and it’s been a excellent press. It was actually the first press I got and have had it close to 20 years. That being said I don’t like leaving the case lube on the brass so I size the clean before loading. I only use it now once a year for pistol rounds. It be much cheaper and pretty close to the same speed to use a single stage and good powder measure. Size all you cases and clean them, prime them up, then throw your charge and seat the bullet. If you don’t mind case lube on loaded rounds, or want to add another stage like crimping then it would be much faster on a progressive.

Dillons are the cream of the crop when it comes to progressive presses. @dddoo7 has lots of experience and knowledge with Dillons and can likely answer your questions best.

Because of needing to trim rifle brass you almost have to run the brass through the press twice. Once to size, again to load. I personally size and prime my .223 brass on the single stage. I then charge, seat, and set COAL on my progressive. Yes it is faster than a single stage, but I also only invested about $100 into getting my progressive up and running. If I had to buy a new press and set it up for the few hundred rounds of pistol and AR stuff a year, I wouldn’t.

So the question really comes down to how many rounds do you plan on processing a year? If it’s just a few hundred, a turret may be a wiser investment. If your talking a couple thousand, well time is money.

I have owned many Dillon presses. They are pretty good...but getting the right one is important.

If you are loading 1200 rounds every few months then a 550 is plenty. If you want faster then a case feeder is necessary and at that point I would recommend a 1050. I feel as if the 650 is in between and not really beneficial. If you need more than a 550, then get a 1050. If you don’t need a 1050, then 550 is plenty.

Also, conversions are much cheaper for 550. If you intend to load several calibers a few hundred at a time then 550 is better than 1050. If you want to load more than 2500 or so in one caliber at a time then 1050 is better.

I personally own two 550’s and have one set up in each primer size so I don’t have to change them over. I have a 1050, but only use it to tumble brass.

I also usually process brass before loading, however if you are just plinking you can sometimes load 2-3 times without trimming or cleaning. If that is the case just run fired brass through the press and go. That saves the step of processing the brass and not much is lost.